Read;
A
Vegetarian's Dining Guide by; Dakota Smith
Click on the above link to view my list of vegetarian dining
around the globe.
Read
our posting on; Global Deforestation
Read our 2007 Special Report
"Vietnam War
Remembered" (6 parts)
By; Mike Smith
Global Warming and
the Consumption of Meat.
Meat is a Major Global Warming Issue.
(Part 1)
Research and story format,
by
Dan Brook, E Magazine.
This
Article was posted Jan. 27 2008 with additional details and
information added
by Mike Smith. TD claims no copyrights to the original article, which is posted
only as a public awareness service.
People of the world "Pay Attention and put
that hamburger down! Our carnivorous habits are hugely responsible
for the dire threat of ever increasing global warming. Did you know that American
industries,
such as McDonalds, with their demand for beef, not to exclude European,
Indian and Chinese companies demand for raw materials are the
leading contributors of Amazon deforestation and global
pollution. Is it really necessary to destroy our world to feed
our lust for products and food stuffs? It's no longer just about our individual desires and
wasteful lifestyles... it's about our very survival.
There are many human activities that contribute to global warming and
among the biggest contributors are; electrical generation, the use of
passenger and other vehicles, air traffic, over-consumption,
international shipping, deforestation and loss of plant & animal
habitat, and fast food corporations, factories, housing, over use of
resources, lack of planning, golf courses, as well as other recreational
activities. In addition, one of the biggest polluters is militarism.
(The U.S. military, for example, is the world's biggest consumer of oil
and the world's biggest polluter) They alone spend 1/4th of the world's
entire military revenues.
What many people do not know, however, is that the production of meat
also significantly increases global warming. Cow farms produce millions
of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane per year, the two major
greenhouse gases that together account for more than 90 percent of U.S.
greenhouse emissions, substantially contributing to "global scorching."
Did you know that 1 ounce of milk can produce a gallon of gas in a
human's intestine?. That a cow constantly releases methane gas when
exhaling? That it takes up to 10 acres of grassland to feed just one cow
and that doesn't include the vast amount of land required to grow the
corn, oats, sorghum and other plants necessary to feed them. And there's
always the chemicals, such as steroids, etc. used to quicken their
weight gain in order to increase their value. Now with that in mind,
consider that Texas alone has in excess of 140 million cattle and are
the USA leader in raising sheep for wool and horses! Did you also know
that the raising and consummation of meat is the world's leading cause
of human death, medical and disease? In addition, it takes an average
of 40 gallons of fresh water per cow, per day to water a cow!
US Hog Slaughter Easily Sets Record, Up 10%
Vs a year ago.
Lower hog prices and firmer wholesale pork values expanded processing
margins to their widest levels in two years, which encouraged packers
to push more hogs through the plants in a single weekend. Federally
inspected hog slaughter this week, estimated at 2.362 million head,
was up 10% from a year ago and easily surpassed the previous high,
which was set the week-ending Oct 2007. The higher pork prices led to
speculation by some traders and analysts that hog prices may be near a
seasonal floor. Did you know that last year millions of hogs were
pulled from the market and simply killed in order to elevate the price
of pork? The same is true for billion of metric tonnes of grain, as
growers manipulate the market by letting the grain rot in silos or in
the field. Sufficient grain to feed the entire world every day for a
year was wasted The same is true for all other livestock, such as
chickens and is doubly true for grains.
Red meat includes
beef, veal, pork, and lamb and mutton. Red meat production in
commercial plants totaled 48.4 billion pounds last year alone and
increases annually. Just try and comprehend the number of chickens
slaughtered each year?
Minnesota ranks 3rd in the USA "Pork Production." Pigs follow primates
and dolphin’s in intelligence and suffer from lack of movement, and
from intensive confinement. Thousands of Minnesota breeding sows spend
their miserable lives imprisoned like this, unable to walk or turn
around. Some cruel and painful animal husbandry practices have been
banned in other countries such as Sweden, and England.
Dog Meat Would you, as a meat lover, eat your dog,
man's best friend?
Well millions of Asians do!!! Diners can and often choose their meal
from 100's of caged dogs and cats. Once the dog, or cat, is
selected, it is dragged away to its death. These animals are not
stupid and can can sense danger, as they live with death all around
them. Koreans and Filipinos believe that dogs
who
die painfully will release more adrenaline into their flesh, creating
a more potent and flavorful meat. Is there really a difference from
eating a dog to eating any animal?
Is it worth the destruction of our world just to eat the flesh of
other living species, while increasing the profits of corporations
murdering billions of animals annually? Our children evolve from loving
animals to eating them. Think about it!
According to the United Nations Environment Program's Unit on Climate
Change, "There is a strong link between human diet and methane emissions
from livestock." The 2004 State of the World is more specific regarding
the link between animals raised for meat and global warming: "Belching,
flatulent livestock emit 16 percent of the world's annual production of
methane, a powerful greenhouse gas."
The July 2005 issue of Physics World states: "The animals we
eat emit 21 percent of all the CO2 that can be attributed to human
activity." Eating meat directly contributes to this environmentally
irresponsible industry and the dire threat of global warming.
Additionally, rainforests are being cut down at an extremely rapid
rate to both pasture cows and grow soybeans to feed cows. The
clear-cutting of trees in the rainforest -- an incredibly bio-diverse
area with 90 percent of all species on Earth -- not only creates more
greenhouse gases through the process of destruction, but also reduces
the amazing benefits that those trees provide. Rainforests have been
called the "lungs of the Earth," because they filter our air by
absorbing CO2, while emitting life-supporting oxygen.
"In a nutshell," according to the Center for International Forestry
Research, "cattle ranchers are making mincemeat out of Brazil's Amazon
rainforests."
Of course, the U.S. should join the other 163 countries in ratifying
the Kyoto Protocol. Of course, we should sharply reduce our reliance on
fossil fuels and shift towards renewable sources of energy. Of course,
we need to stop destroying the rainforests. Of course, we need to stop
the war in Iraq and drastically reduce the U.S. military budget
(presently at half of the entire world's total military spending), which
would increase, not decrease, national and global security. But as we're
struggling and waiting for these and other structural changes, we need
to make personal changes.
Geophysicists Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin from the University of
Chicago concluded that changing one's eating habits from the Standard
American Diet (SAD) to a vegetarian diet does more to fight global
warming than switching from a gas-guzzling SUV to a fuel-efficient
hybrid car. Of course, you can do both. Where the environment is
concerned, eating meat is like driving a huge SUV. According to Eshel,
eating a vegetarian diet is like driving a mid-sized car or a reasonable
sedan, and eating a vegan diet (no dairy, no eggs) is like riding a
bicycle or walking. Shifting away from SUVs and SUV-style diets, to much
more energy-efficient alternatives, is key to fighting the warming
trend.
Global warming is already having grave effects on our planet.
Vegetarians help keep the planet cool in more ways than one. Paul
McCartney says, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do
is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you
could do." Andrea Gordon, in her article "If You Recycle, Why Are You
Eating Meat?" agrees: "There is a direct relationship between eating
meat and the environment. Quite simply, you can't be a meat-eating
environmentalist. Sorry folks."
Vegetarianism is literally about life and death -- for each of us
individually and for all of us together. Eating animals simultaneously
contributes to a multitude of tragedies: the animals' suffering and
death; the ill-health and early death of people; the unsustainable
overuse of oil, water, land, topsoil, grain, labor and other vital
resources; environmental destruction, including deforestation, species
extinction, mono-cropping and global warming; the legitimacy of force
and violence; the mis-allocation of capital, skills, land and other
assets; vast inefficiencies in the economy; tremendous waste; massive
inequalities in the world; the continuation of world hunger and mass
starvation; the transmission and spread of dangerous diseases; and moral
failure in so-called civilized societies. Vegetarianism is an antidote
to all of these unnecessary tragedies.
The editors of World Watch concluded in the July/August 2004
edition that "the human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force
behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now
threatening the human future -- deforestation, erosion, fresh water
scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss,
social injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of
disease." Lee Hall, the legal director for Friends of Animals, is more
succinct: "Behind virtually every great environmental complaint there's
milk and meat."
Global warming may be the most serious global social problem
threatening life on Earth. We need to fight global warming on the
governmental and corporate levels, and we also need to fight global
warming on the everyday and personal levels. It is now the time to do
more than change our light bulbs...it is time we unite and stop the
maddening destruction of our planets with our dining choices.
Dan Brook is an
instructor of sociology at San Jose State University and author of
"Modern Revolution" (University Press of America, 2005).
Do you realize that by eating the flesh of other
living creatures and using crops to burn in your vehicles that you are
contributing to the very demise of our planet?
Why we should not Eat Meat!
Every year 55 billion animals are killed worldwide for human
consumption. For example, in Germany it is 442,100,000 roasting
chickens, 65,200,000 pigs, 34,000,000 soup chickens, 26,300,000 turkeys,
16,200,000 ducks, 5,100,000 cows, 1,700,000 geese, 1,100,000 sheep or
goats and 8,100 horses. And in the US the numbers are even greater. In
2006 the USA slaughtered several billion animals that were raised for
consumption. These included for instance, 51 million cattle and calves,
154 million pigs, 5.2 million sheep, 365 million turkeys, 28,6 million
ducks, as well as 2,933 million broilers and 504 million laying hens. In
addition to the raised animals, fish stocks are mostly depleted and even
sharks are on the verge of extinction. As many as 75 million sharks are
killed annually just for their fins. The demand for the fins are from
Asia, especially China, where shark fin soup is very popular. The sharks
are caught, their fins hacked off, and are then thrown back in the ocean
to slowly and painfully bleed to death. From whaling to the killing of
dolphins and to the murderous clubbing of baby seals...the world's
populace has lost all sense of morality and, unfortunately, now has the
means to destroy all life on this planet...including human!
Click here for
part 2.
*Articles are posted as a public service and
Travelers Digest expresses no rights or claims to the posting. Note*
Global Warming and the destruction of our planet is everyone's concern,
so get involved and do your part...now!!!
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